The city is a notable railroad hub, as well as an industrial centre (textiles, shoes, metallurgical plant, machine works, wood and paper industry). It is a centre of Hutsul culture. At the turn of the 20th century the city was the most populous city in Stanisławów Voivodeship.

In 1340 it was annexed to Poland by King Casimir III, together with the rest of the region of Red Ruthenia. Sometime in the 1340s, another fortress was erected there.[2] In a short time the settlement became one of the most notable centres of commerce in the area. Because of that, the population rose rapidly.

In 1405 the town's city rights were confirmed and it was granted with the Magdeburg Law, which allowed the burghers limited self-governance.[3][4] This move made the development of the area faster and Kołomyja, as it was called then, attracted many settlers from many parts of Europe. Apart from the local Ukrainians and Poles, many Armenians, Jews, and Hungarians settled there. In 1411 the fortress-city was given away for 25 years to the VlachHospodarOlexander as a gift for his support in the war against Hungary.[4] In 1443, a year before his death, King Wladislaus II of Poland granted the city yet another privilege which allowed the burghers to trade salt, one of the most precious minerals of the Middle Ages.

Since the castle gradually fell into disarray, in 1448 King Casimir IV of Poland gave the castle on the hill above the town to Maria, widow of Eliah, voivode of Moldavia as a dowry. In exchange, she refurbished the castle and reinforced it. In 1456 the town was granted yet another privilege. This time the king allowed the town authorities to stop all merchants passing by the town, and force them to sell their goods at the local market. This gave the town an additional boost, especially as the region was one of three salt-producing areas in Poland (the other two being Wieliczka and Bochnia), both not far from Kraków.

The area was relatively peaceful for the next century. However, the vacuum after the decline of the Golden Horde started to be filled by yet another power in the area: the Ottoman Empire. In 1485 SultanBeyazid II captured Belgorod and Kilia, two ports on the northern shores of the Black Sea. This became a direct threat to Moldavia. In search of allies, its ruler Ştefan cel Mare came to Kolomyia and paid homage to the Polish king, thus becoming a vassal of the Polish Crown. For the ceremony, both monarchs came with roughly 20,000 knights, which was probably the biggest festivity ever held in the town. After the festivity most knights returned home, apart from 3,000 under Jan Karnkowski, who were given to the Moldavian prince as support in his battles, which he won in the end. In 1490 the city was sacked by the riot of Ivan Mukha.[4]

However, with the death of Stefan of Moldova, the neighbouring state started to experience both internal and external pressure from the Turks. As a consequence of border skirmishes, as well as natural disasters, the town was struck by fires in 1502, 1505, 1513, and 1520.

The following year, hetmanJan Tarnowski recaptured the town and defeated the Moldavians in the Battle of Obertyn. This victory secured the city's existence for the following years, but the Ottoman power grew and Poland's southern border remained insecure.

In 1589, the Turks crossed the border and seized Kolomyia almost immediately. All the burghers who had taken part in the defence were slaughtered, while the rest were forced to pay high indemnities.

The town was returned to Poland soon afterwards, but the city's growth lost its momentum.

In 1620, another Polono-Turkish war broke out. After the Polish defeat at Ţuţora, Kolomyia was yet again seized by the Turks. In 1626[4] the town was burned to the ground, while all of residents were enslaved in a jasyr.

After the war the area yet again returned to Poland. With the town in ruins, the starosta of Kamieniec Podolski fortress financed its reconstruction – slightly further away from the Prut River. The town was rebuilt, but never regained its power and remained one of many similar-scaled centres in the area.

During the Khmelnytskyi Uprising in 1648–54, the Kolomyia county became a centre of a peasant unrest (Pokuttya Uprising) led by Semen Vysochan.[2][5] The rebels' centre was a town of Otynia.[5] With the help of incoming Cossack forces, Vysochan managed to overtake the important local fortress of Pniv (today – a village of Nadvirna Raion) and eventually managed to take under its control most of cities and villages in the region providing great support for the advancing Cossack forces of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.[5] Soon however with advancing Polish troops, Vysochan was forced to retreat to the eastern Podillya where he continued to fight under commands of Ivan Bohun and Ivan Sirko.[5]

In the 17th century the city's outskirts saw another peasant rebellion led by Oleksa Dovbush.[2] The rebels were known as opryshky.

However, as it provided very little profit, Kolomyia was sold to the castellan of Bełz, Ewaryst Kuropatnicki, who became the town's owner. The magnate financed a new Our Lady's Church, but he lacked the financial means to accelerate the city's growth.

Prosperity returned to the town in the mid-19th century, when it was linked to the world through the Lemberg-Czernowitz railroad. By 1882 the city had almost 24,000 inhabitants, including roughly 12,000 Jews, 6,000 Ruthenians, and 4,000 Poles. Until the end of that century, commerce attracted even more inhabitants from all over Galicia. Moreover, a new Jesuit Catholic church was built in Kolomyia, as it was called by German authorities, along with a Lutheran church built in 1874. By 1901 the number of inhabitants grew to 34,188, approximately half of them Jews.

In 1900 the Jewish population was 16,568, again nearly 50% of the town's population. The Jewish community had a Great Synagogue, and about 30 other synagogues. In 1910 Jews were prohibited from selling alcoholic beverages. In 1911 they were prohibited from salt and wine occupations.

However, during the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1919, it was seized without a fight by forces of Romania, and handed over to Polish authorities. According to the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia, it was taken over by the Polish bourgeoisie and land owners.[2] During the Polish-Bolshevik 1919 war in Ukraine, a Polish division under General Zeligowski tore through Bessarabia and Bukovina and stopped in Kolomyia during its winter march to Poland. Kolomyia was then temporarily occupied by the Romanians and the border was near the town (shtetl) Otynia between Stanislav and Kolomyia.

In 1940 part of the local population were arrested by the NKVD,[citation needed] and sent to the Gulag system or to various Soviet prisons among which were Polish, Ukrainians, Hungarians, and many others.

In 1941, the town was seized by Nazi Germany. During the German occupation most of the city's Jews were murdered by the German occupation authorities. Initial street executions of September and October 1941 took the lives of approximately 500 people. The following year the remaining Jews were massed in a local ghetto, and then murdered in various concentration camps, mostly in Bełżec. Several hundred Jews were kept as slave workers in a labour camp, and then murdered in 1943 in a forest near Sheparivtsi.

The Red Army liberated Kolomyia from the German invaders on 28 March 1944. Soon after that many construction workers, teachers, doctors, engineers and other skilled professionals began to arrive to restore the ruined city. They arrived from the eastern part of Ukraine and other parts of the Soviet Union.

During the Cold War the town was the headquarters of the 44th Rocket Division of the Strategic Rocket Forces, which had previously been the 73rd Engineer Brigade RVGK at Kamyshin. The division was disbanded on 31 March 1990.[7]

By the time of independence the vast majority of industrial enterprises of Kolomyia had closed or had been eliminated: Plant "Kolomyiasilmash", "Zahotzerno", plant "Elektroosnastka", factory "September 17", a shoe factory, a woodworking factory, plant KRP (complete switchgears),the printing house on Valova St.,a brush manufacturer, a weaving factory and many others. Also shut down were movie theatres; there had been four: Irchan movie theatre, Kirov movie theatre, movie theatre "Yunist" (Youth), and a summer theatre in the present Trylovskoho park (formerly named Kirov park). A film store of regional importance also closed down. As a result, many people found themselves unemployed, and many town residents felt forced to move abroad to find work. Those companies that have remained from the Soviet era barely function. These include a curtain factory, a paper mill, Metalozavod, Plant PRUT (programmable electronic educational terminals),a cheese factory, "Kolomyiasilmash", Kolomyia Plant management of building materials, Kolomyia Motor Company, a paper mill, a clothes factory on Valova St, a printing house on Mazepa St., and a canned fruit plant.

Most of these companies were widely known in the former Soviet Union and abroad, as they were highly advanced in terms of equipment, skilled workers, and engineering staff. These enterprises produced many products, with people working in several shifts, and providing the city with received significant tax revenues.

It is a sister city of Nysa in Poland, to which many of its former inhabitants had to move after the war.

The museum was opened on 23 September 2000, during the 10th International Hutsul festival. Director Yaroslava Tkachuk first came up with the idea of a museum in the shape of a pysanka, local artists Vasyl Andrushko and Myroslav Yasinskyi brought the idea to life. The museum is not only shaped like an egg (14 m in height and 10 m in diameter), but parts of the exterior and interior of the dome are painted to resemble a pysanka.